Burger - Contemporary Flashcards
Aim - P1, A01
Burger’s aim was to see if Milgram’s results were era-bound - the results were only true for the specific period of time when his study was carried out
He also aimed to see whether obedience is affected by gender as well as personality traits ‘empathic concern’ and ‘desire for personal control’
Sample - P1, A01
A volunteer sample was used with 70 people aged 20-81
29 males and 41 females
Weakness of sample - P1, A03
One weakness of Burger’s study is that it was not representative of the target population
38% of volunteers were deselected to exclude anyone who might have found the study particularly distressing
Therefore, the people in the final sample may have been more psychologically robust than many people in the general population
therefore, this may have led to lower levels of obedience and meant the generalisability of the findings will be limited
COUNTER ARGUMENT TO Weakness of sample - P1, A03
However, a large age range was used in the sample, the participants ranged from age 20-81
This means that the findings would have been able to be generalised to all ages due to the wide range of ages who completed the study
Procedure - P2, A01
lab experiment
Burger replicated Milgram’s study 5 where two confederates and participants ad to shock the learner in the chair and the participants were the teachers
it was more ethical in Burger’s procedure than in Milgram’s with 6 safe guards used
For example: 1. careful screening took place to exclude people who may have had a negative reaction to the experience, 2. the shocks only went up to 150V to reduce anxiety levels and 3. patients were reminded 3 times of the right to withdraw
the researcher recorded the final shock given and stopped when the 4 prods had been given or when participants reached the 150V shock level
Weakness of Procedure - P2, A03
One weakness of the procedure used it that the it lacks internal validity due to the artificial environment which it was carried out in and the nature of what the participants had to do
During the study, the teachers shocked the learner if they got a word pairing wrong
this is artificial because in school and learning environment when someone gets something wrong, they are not administered with a shock as a punishment
therefore, this means that the results of the study may lack validity as it is not representative of the real world due to the artificial nature of the study
Results - P3, A01
the obedience rate was 70% which is only slightly lower than in Milgram’s experiment 5 which was 82.5%
there was no significant difference in obedience rates of men and women, but women were more likely to press the 150V switch (men - 66.7% women - 72.7%)
no significant difference between the empathic concern scores of defiant (19.25) and obedient (19.20)
the defiant participants had significantly higher desire for personal control scores (106.92) than obedient participants (98.24)
conclusions - P3, A01
Milgram’s findings are not era-bound or androcentric
lack of empathy doesn’t explain high obedience rates as both defiant and obedient participants had similar scores, but desire for personal control seems to be related to likelihood of defiance
Applications of Results - P3, A03
One strength of Burger’s study is that it shows that Milgram’s findings are not era-bound
It was still found in Burger’s study that if one has a higher level if desire for personal control that they will be more defiant
Therefore, this means that the results of Burgers study can still be applied to society today in the same way that Milgram’s were such as to improve pilot training which would reduce plan crashes.
